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The violence of art

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The Nightmare - Henry Fuseli Nightmares can evoke our greatest fears and Fuseli's 1781 work seems to bring alive fears of violation. A woman lies stretched out like a sacrificial offering on a bed, while a troll sits on her stomach. It indicates fears of rape, bestiality and voyeurism.

Susanna and the Elders - Artemisia Gentileschi
One of the few women artists of the 1600s, Gentileschi was inspired by Caravaggio. She was 17 when she finished this canvas, her first painting. She depicts the biblical story of Susanna, a virtuous young wife who is sexually harassed by two old judges who say they will try her for adultery if she does not give in to them. She refuses, stands
trial and is proved innocent. Rather than showing Susanna as coy or submissive, Gentileschi portrays her as vulnerable yet repulsed by their demands, while the men loom large and leering over her.

Judith Slaying Holofernes - Artemisia Gentileschi
Gentileschi's rendition of this rather brutal story of two women, Judith and her maid, beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes is
considered the artist's response to her own rape. She was raped by her art teacher Agostino Tassi, who later stood trial but was acquitted In the process, Gentileschi was humiliated and further abused. Some
biographers and art experts say that the painting, which is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, was done during the trial and expresses her suppressed rage.

Rape of Ganymede - Michelangelo
Completed in 1533 in Rome, this mythological painting tells a story of homosexual desire. Ganymede, a beautiful young shepherd, was abducted and taken to Mount Olympus by Zeus in the form of an eagle. The painting's sexual charge comes from the eagle's strong and rapacious grip on the young man. It is in the collection of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.

The Tragedy of Lucretia - Sandro Botticelli
Painted in the early 1500s, this oil on wood art work is said to depict the Romans' attitude towards rape and the shame that survivors felt. Lucretia is raped by the king's son Tarquinius. After telling her father and husband about the rape and asking them to avenge the crime, she commits suicide in shame. The act is said to have led to a revolution and the ultimate overthrow of the king.

The Rape of Deianira - Guido Reni
This Baroque style painting hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The subject is from Ovid's Metamorphosis during a journey Hercules and Deianira are making. They come to a river where the centaur Nessus was the ferryman. While carrying Deianira across he attempts to rape her, but Hercules draws his bow and kills him.

Rape of the negro girl - Christiaen van Couwenberg
Completed in 1632, this evocative oil on canvas shows the attitude of the day towards coloured people. The Dutch were leaders in the slave trade, and in this canvas, three laughing white men force themselves on an African girl, whose horror and fear are apparent.

The Nightmare - Henry Fuseli
Nightmares can evoke our greatest fears and Fuseli's 1781 work seems to bring alive fears of violation. A woman lies stretched out like a sacrificial offering on a bed, while a troll sits on her stomach. It indicates fears of rape, bestiality and voyeurism.

Scene of Rape and Murder - Francisco Goya
This oil on wood work was completed in 1812, and is rather chilling. A man forces a woman down even as she pleads for mercy and a child cries near her. Another sinister hooded figure looks down. The work belongs to the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Disasters of War - Francisco Goya
Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya was deeply affected by war and, towards the end of his life, did a series of 82 black-and-white prints in response to conflict. The prints were of cruelty, rape, torture, starvation, and humiliation. Spanish women were often raped and assaulted during the many wars he lived through, which is shown in plate 10. In plate nine, which bears the words ‘No quieren’, meaning ‘they do not want to’, an elderly woman with a knife defends a young girl who is being assaulted by a soldier.

Raped - Kathe Kollwitz
Done in 1907, this lithograph by German artist Kathe Kollwitz is among the early pictures in Western art to portray the female victim of sexual violence with empathy. It is part of her Peasants War series that was highly acclaimed in pre-World War I Germany. She was known for her evocative works that focussed on women and dealt with war and poverty.